The point of this story was to teach about what happened and to make you really think about life and how you fit in. I wanted to explain that there isn’t always a happy ending, but that sometimes in life that’s okay. Here’s the real story, what really happened, and what everyone’s doing now.

Ryan Atwood - Robert

Marissa Cooper - Carmen (my grandma)

Carmen : July 17, 1953 - ?

Robert: October 11, 1947 - October 4, 1968

Obviously there was an age difference, but Robert saw my grandma playing tennis one day and became hooked on her. He’d walk her home from school, skip classes to be with her, and overall made her laugh. He was her escape from her mom who beat her, and her mom’s various boyfriends that made countless passes. Robert and my grandma fell in love and ‘went steady’ for a while, and then he graduated. Their sex talk went something like this:

Robert: I want to park my car in your garage.

Carmen: Did you get a new car?

Robert (shakes head) No…I want to park my car in your garage…

Carmen: (confused) But I don’t have a garage…

Robert: (laughs) You’re not ready for this

My grandma was quite young when he left for the Navy. He came home on leave one day and found her pregnant. Considering he never slept with her, it was obvious it wasn’t his. He still got down on one knee and offered her the choice of being his wife. Being fourteen and overwhelmed, she declined his offer. He said he wouldn’t live without her. October of that year, a week before his twenty first birthday, he died.

My grandma describes the funeral as one of the worst thins she’s ever experienced. She says when they shot into the air, she felt that they were shooting her heart and it tore her in two.

Domingo (Steve) was also only seven years older than her. I didn’t want to do this in the story because I don’t like those relationships between older women and younger men. Ew. Anyways, she was forced to marry him. He served time for six months in prison for statutory rape. He is listed as a child predator. He loved and still loves my grandma. He’s sorry that he ever hurt her.

One night he called my grandma while she was married to her current husband and told her he was sorry for everything. He said he never should’ve taken advantage of her and that her current husband is lucky because he got to have her. We haven’t heard much of him since.

My grandma had a hard life to say the least. She’s been whipped, stabbed, shot at, raped, mentally abused, hit, kicked, thrown, and through it all, she still stands strong. She’s one of the best people I know and is quick to smile in any situation. She’s currently married to her third husband and happy for once. She finally got that happy ending that Robert had promised, even if it wasn’t with him.

If you want to know more, PM me or email me.

RIP Robert, we’ll all remember you.